The Internet is a world-wide computer network, or more accurately, a world-wide network of networks. It provides an exchange of information and offers a vast range of services. Today, the Internet has grown so as to include all kinds of institutions, businesses, and even individuals at their homes.
The World-Wide Web ("WWW" or "Web") is one of the services available on the Internet. It is based on a technology known as "hypertext", in which a document has links to its other parts or to other documents. Hypertext has been extended so as to encompass links to any kind of information that can be stored on a computer, including images and sound. For example, using the Web, from within a document one can select highlighted words or phases to get definitions, sources, or related documents, stored anywhere in the world. For this reason, the Web may be described as a "hypermedia" network.
The basic unit in the Web is a "page", a (usually) text-plus-graphics document with links to other pages. "Navigating" the Web primarily means moving around from page to page.
The idea behind the Web is to collect all kinds of data from all kinds of sources, avoiding the problems of incompatibilities by allowing a smart server and a smart client program to deal with the format of the data. This capability to negotiate formats enables the Web to accept all kinds of data, including multimedia formats, once the proper translation code is added to the servers and clients. The Web client is used to connect to and to use Web resources located on Web servers.
One type of client software used to access and use the Web is referred as "web browser" software. This software can be installed on the user's computer to provide a graphic interface, where links are highlighted or otherwise marked for easy selection with a mouse or other pointing device.